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Puerto Iguazu is a small border town which until 1880 was only inhabited by the Guarani Indians. It’s now a town focussed almost entirely on tourism due to the increasing popularity of the Iguazu Falls. Most tourists are South American. It is a great little town in a lovely setting, with the Rio Iguazu and Brazil to the north and the Rio Paraná and Paraguay to the west. Twenty kilometres to the east lie the falls themselves and rainforest surrounds it all. As we are writing this blog, Argentina are playing Chile (in Chile) in the final of the America Cup. Fireworks heralded the start of the game an hour ago but at the moment the score is 0-0 so it is quiet and tense as the whole nation stays glued to the TV screens.
Today we took a small boat trip on the two rivers, so we passed in and out of the waters of the three countries, since the borders are in the middle of the rivers where they meet. The Paraná is a fast deep river, some seventy metres deep at the confluence. It journeys four thousand kilometres from its source above Sao Paolo to
its confluence with the Rio Plata (River Plate) from where the waters from both flow on past Buenos Aries into the Atlantic. It is a busy river, we saw barges transporting sugar from Paraguay. Since Paraguay is a land-bound country, this river is really essential to its economy.
On the three banks of the three countries, facing the confluence, there are obelisks painted in each country’s flag colours, green and yellow for Brazil, red and white for Paraguay and pale blue and white for Argentina.
Tomorrow we are going to the falls for the third and probably last time. We shall walk the lower trails and also we are hoping to take the boat ride to the base of some of the falls. These boats are not like Niagara’s “Maid of the Mist”, they are just large inflatable dinghies with big outboard motors on the back and they don’t go anywhere near the Devil’s Throat; to do so would be suicidal! Nevertheless, they go into a lot of white water, so it should be pretty exciting.
It is so nice being back in Argentina for a week. We feel quite at
home and people understand us. Apart from being Spanish speakers, more people speak English as well and the Argentinians are more tourist-orientated than the Brazilians. For example, Argentina is the only country of the three, offering boat trips across the three frontiers.
We are going out for a meal in a little while, when the football finishes. No Argentinian chef will be cooking right now! Football is a religion in South America. The match is now in extra time and still 0-0. No fireworks!
Postscript… Argentina have just lost the Cup Final 4 -1 on penalties. The country will now be in mourning. Hope we get some dinner! We will not order soup in case the chef has cried into it!
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